


Of All the Ways We Could Be Better

by hyuniebee



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Fae & Fairies, Foursome - M/M/M/M, Kang Yeosang is Whipped, Kang Yeosang-centric, M/M, Magic, Seelie Court, Seelie King Kim Hongjoong, Unseelie Court, Unseelie King Park Seonghwa, Yeosang gets kidnapped, but it’s okay, for all three of them, it’s just Wooyoung, they are all whipped for him in return
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:49:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25396417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyuniebee/pseuds/hyuniebee
Summary: San finally shifted towards his friend. “Wooyoung, come on, we need to go.” He laid his hand on Wooyoung’s shoulder causing him to flinch and snap out of whatever thoughts he was lost in. Wooyoung’s gaze flickered between San and Yeosang, an almost fear taking over his features. “Woo?” San, noticing the expression in his friend’s face, was starting to get concerned. “What’s wrong?”Wooyoung turned back to look at Yeosang and, after another silent moment, took a deep breath as if preparing himself for something. “Are you…” His voice faltered, unsure. “Are you Yeosang?”Everything in Yeosang’s mind stopped at the question. “W- what?” His breathing began to pick up again and he looked frantically between the two men that had chased him down into this clearing. “How do you know that? How do you know my name?”
Relationships: Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Choi San/Kang Yeosang, Choi San/Park Seonghwa, Jung Wooyoung/Kang Yeosang, Jung Wooyoung/Park Seonghwa, Kang Yeosang/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 7
Kudos: 80





	Of All the Ways We Could Be Better

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for giving this a shot. It’s my first ever fic I’ve posted on this site and my first Ateez work. 
> 
> Thank you to Everett and Leilei, both of which have cheered me on and supported me every step of the way through coming up with this and finally writing it. You both have done more for me than you can imagine.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!

Yeosang remembered the stories his grandmother had told him of the consequences of traveling at night.Travelers swept off their horses, dragged from their carriages, and beaten close to death for whatever they carried with them. They were dark stories, as dark as the sky witnessing them, of nothing but injury, cruelty, and, sometimes, death. Some of the stories were of attackers without a soul, not stealing a thing, just wanting to hurt others as some form of twisted entertainment. It was these stories that kept Yeosang’s eyes trained on the woods around the party he traveled with as they passed between towns to get home. If there were any such attacks as in the stories, he didn’t want to be caught completely off guard.

If it had been his place, he would have offered advice against continuing to travel once the sun had sunk out of the sky, but he had no such place as a mere servant boy. The lord whose house he served under had insisted on getting home as soon as possible after learning that his wife had gone into labor with their second child. The party consisted of two carriages full of the lord and his companions that had traveled to a party in the big city not even two days before, and the horses with servants and guards following behind. Yeosang was at the furthest point back, atop one of the lower bred steeds in the lord’s stable. He was nothing but a servant brought on the journey to help with luggage, so he was not allowed any further up.

Although he watched closely, Yeosang could see nothing through the trees surrounding them due to the lack of light where he sat. His only sources of light were the stars, but not even those could breach the unforgiving cover of branches and leaves enough to help him. He still attempted to listen past the sounds of the carriage wheels and horses’ hooves, but truthfully he had no such training in observation or tracking to assist him very far no matter what he did. But still, he watched.

Perhaps it was this watching that allowed him the sense to feel that something was coming.

Or perhaps it was something else.

Nevertheless, he looked ahead at the carriages just in time to see a dark figure land atop one of them. One of the guards yelled, to call attention to the figure and to halt the party’s movement most likely, but it also caught the attention of the figure. The stars allowed Yeosang to see nothing but the shine of a slicing grin before his breath left him in a gasp, another figure having attacked him at the back. He was thrown from his horse, the landing on the ground stunning him for a moment.

When he regained the ability to sit up, he heard more yelling and could see shadows of more men thrown to the ground. There seemed to be only two attackers but they were disarming and subduing the men of the party quickly and effortlessly. Yeosang scrambled to his feet and looked around him in the dark, searching for something to defend himself with. He found a stick and, although he knew it would be completely ineffective, held it up before him in a protective stance. 

The attackers continued their silent raid, and Yeosang could do nothing but watch. Horses fled past him, and he knew he should try to catch one and escape on it, but he was enraptured by the sight of one of the attackers in the dim lamplight of the carriages. Only the edges of him could be seen but what was visible was beautiful. The man seemed to have silver hair, his jawline prominent and sharp, cheekbones high. Yeosang had never seen someone so elegantly beautiful. He had never seen someone so deadly. 

At an outraged cry, Yeosang’s eyes caught the figure of the lord of the house being pulled from his carriage by the other attacker. The older man writhed and made the most noise of anyone else in the party. The man with silver hair laughed at him.

“Is _this_ the leader?” His voice was high and loud in the quiet of the night. He cooed at the captured man, leaning close to his face and squishing it between his hands like he was a cute baby. The lord tried to spit on the beautiful man, but his saliva came out as a pathetic dribble down his chin. The silver man laughed harder, his laugh even higher than his voice, startling Yeosang and causing him to take a step back where he stepped on some fallen leaves. 

Yeosang’s eyes widened at the crunch the leaves made beneath his boots, his head whipping back to the two figures where they still held the lord between them. But now their gazes were fixed on him, the lord all but forgotten.

“San,” the silver one took a step towards Yeosang, and Yeosang could do nothing but watch, “knock him out.” The other figure, still cloaked in darkness it seemed, raised a hand above his head and brought it down on the side of the lord’s head. Yeosang flinched at the sickening thump of the body hitting the hard ground and finally took another step away from the attackers who were only interested in him now, the only member of the party still standing. When the other attacker, San the silver one had called him, finally stepped into the lamplight, it took Yeosang only a moment to see the sharp gleam of his left eye and the shine of a pale stripe of hair before he was turning and darting into the darkened forest.

He could see nothing but the shadows of trees looming before him, but he ran with complete abandon, escape and survival his only thoughts. He swore he could hear that high laugh again and it only spurred him on faster.

Yeosang had never been a religious man. His grandmother had not raised him in the church so he had no reason to be, but for the first time he prayed to an unknown god. Yeosang’s life was not what most would call a desirable one, but it was his and he would like to keep it. In no thoughts or dreams of his had he ever wanted to die, especially not in a forest in the dead of night at the hands of a couple of maniacs.

He ran, low-hanging branches whipping his face, roots and shrubbery tripping him up but never making him fall. The stick he had picked up off the side of the road was still gripped tightly in his white-knuckled hand, his only hope of defense once the attackers inevitably caught up to him. He wasn’t sure how long he ran for or how far, just that he couldn’t stop if he wanted to live.

In the end it was a rabbit. There was no way he could see any animals around him until he was extremely close to them even if his eyes had adjusted to the darkness a bit. Just as he broke through a line of trees into a small clearing where the stars shone brighter, there was a rabbit darting directly across his path and in order to not trip over it, he stumbled to the side but lost his footing. He tumbled over into the wet grass of the clearing as the rabbit escaped through the opposite side and suddenly there were a pair of shiny leather boots before his face. 

As quickly as he could, he rolled onto his back and lifted the stick before him, but the boot had already collided with his chest where it held him down. He looked up into the shadowed face of the attacker with the pale streak of hair and he could not prepare himself to die no matter how hard he tried.

“Well, that was fun,” the voice of the man with the silver hair was lilted in an amused tone. Yeosang didn’t want to take his eyes off of the man above him but he couldn’t help the glance he threw to the one entering the clearing last. The stars helped him a bit better to see here, but he wasn’t sure if he was entirely grateful to them for that. “You run faster than I thought you would.”

Yeosang noticed that the one speaking didn’t seem to be out of breath at all, but the shoulders of San above him were moving almost as heavily as Yeosang’s. The silver man wasn’t looking at Yeosang but instead at his captor. His voice was much quieter and less amused when he asked, “Are you okay?” 

The man holding Yeosang down sent his partner a breathless nod, his sharp eyes still fixed below him at their victim. Yeosang was torn between which of them to keep his sight on, but he supposed it didn’t matter now that he had been caught. The closer the silver man came, the brighter it seemed to get in the clearing, silver light from the moon and stars casting the clearing in an ethereal glow. Yeosang was already breathless from the run and the boot on his chest, but he completely stopped breathing when his two attackers were more fully illuminated.

He had already caught a glimpse of how beautiful the one with the silver hair looked, but in better light his hair now looked an almost lilac color making his skin warmer and his eyes more bold in their pale coloring. His high cheekbones softened into his face making him look young and almost innocent, save for the mischievous grin overtaking his boyish features. The one above him, San, was sharper though. His cheekbones, jawline, even his eyes cutting into Yeosang mercilessly. His longer hair falling around his face softened him a bit, but he still looked fatally stunning. Everything about them radiated a kind of power and influence Yeosang had never experienced before and he wasn’t sure how to properly respond to his situation because of it. 

“Well, as long as you are sure, we can get to the fun part.” The shadow of San loomed over Yeosang, obscuring him from the sight of the almost too cheerful attacker that was now at their side. He grinned down at Yeosang’s wide eyed stare, and leaned closer to get a better look. “You managed to make this experience much more exciting than Sannie and I expected it to be, so thank you for that. It’s a shame, though, that we’ll still have to kill you for it.” At this a choked off sound of alarm came from Yeosang’s throat but didn’t make it very far past his lips. The silver man’s grin sharpened impossibly further at this, almost in a sick sort of delight. 

“You actually want to kill him?” San asked, finally turning his gaze to his partner beside him rather than Yeosang beneath them. “Why? We didn’t kill any of the others.” His voice was deeper, softer than the silver man’s. When he spoke the sharp features of his face took on a more youthful edge to them, a gentleness no other aspect of him had displayed as of yet. 

“No, but none of the others put us through this much trouble. They didn’t see us for such a long amount of time, either.” The silver one’s brow furrowed as he nearly seemed to argue with his partner. Friend? Yeosang wasn’t sure what they were to one another other than something familiar enough for the sharp one to be referred to as “Sannie”. 

“Trouble? You love it when they run. You hardly kill them for it, though. And of course he ran. If death was an outcome I faced, I would run from it too. Killing him isn’t fair, we’re the reason he saw our faces in the first place.” The boot bearing down upon Yeosang’s chest making it difficult for him to inhale properly after that run suddenly lifted, Yeosang coughing on his quick inhalation of breath. San stepped away from where Yeosang lay sprawled on the ground, and away from where the silver man was now looking at him in frustration. The two were glaring at each other in a silent disagreement, and Yeosang was too enraptured to have the sense to make another run for it now that he was no longer physically trapped. After a moment of tense silence, San took a step back towards the silver man, a pleading look now crossing his face. “I won’t kill him, Wooyoung.”

“Fine!” The attacker now finally identified to Yeosang as Wooyoung stamped his foot into the ground, like a child on the verge of a tantrum. “He can live. But what do you want to do with him, then?” 

San turned back to where Yeosang lay staring at the duo before him, eyes still wide in a mixture of confusion and fear. His gaze seemed to soften looking at the roughed up servant boy. “I think we’ve had our fun. I say we let him go and return home.” 

“ _What_?” Wooyoung shrieked, his voice impossibly higher than perhaps even his laugh had been. “You just want to let him go? After all of that?” San shrugged and lifted his brow at Wooyoung challengingly.

“What else is there to do? Besides I think we’ve been gone long enough. If we’re gone any longer, Seonghwa may catch on and then we’ll be in more trouble than we were the last time we went into the mortal realm without his permission.” There was a hint of a laugh in San’s voice now, his face softening even further as it brightened into a smile. Prominent dimples stood out and he looked ever more childish than Wooyoung did in the moment. Wooyoung’s previous glare slipped off at the sight of San’s smile and he looked like he almost wanted to smile himself in return. After a moment of gazing at his companion, Wooyoung scoffed and took a step away from San as if snapping out of a trance.

“Fine, whatever, we can let him go.” He turned towards Yeosang and Yeosang’s breath stopped in his chest as the attention was back on him. He shifted to sit upwards a bit more, moving further into the light the sky above was providing. Wooyoung moved to step towards him, but at a glance at his face he stopped dead. Nothing in his expression gave away what he was feeling other than the soft click of his jaw sealing shut. Yeosang, despite his fear, was more confused than anything now. Why was the silver man just staring at him? His eyes had turned hard again but they had a faraway look to them as well. 

After a moment of complete silence and an uncomfortable amount of eye contact between Yeosang and Wooyoung, San finally shifted towards his friend. “Wooyoung, come on, we need to go.” He laid his hand on Wooyoung’s shoulder causing him to flinch and snap out of whatever thoughts he was lost in. Wooyoung’s gaze flickered between San and Yeosang, an almost fear taking over his features. “Woo?” San, noticing the expression in his friend’s face, was starting to get concerned. “What’s wrong?”

Wooyoung turned back to look at Yeosang and, after another silent moment, took a deep breath as if preparing himself for something. “Are you…” His voice faltered, unsure. “Are you Yeosang?” 

Everything in Yeosang’s mind stopped at the question. “W- what?” His breathing began to pick up again and he looked frantically between the two men that had chased him down into this clearing. “How do you know that? How do you know my name?” Yeosang looked over at San as if searching for answers, but the other man had a look of shock written all across his features as he seemed to look through Yeosang completely. Yeosang looked back at Wooyoung quickly as he took another step towards him.

“I- We… I mean, you… Oh, Seonghwa is going to _kill_ me.” Wooyoung looked almost like he couldn’t believe that he had found himself here, in this forest, facing Yeosang. Yeosang was still wildly alarmed. 

“We’re leaving.” 

Both Wooyoung and Yeosang’s heads snapped over to the direction San had spoken from. His eyes looking at Yeosang had gone from shocked to cold. He stared with no feeling, turning to Wooyoung to grab his arm. 

“What? But I just—“ Wooyoung resisted only in words, as his body moved to follow as San wanted him to as they began marching away. “San!”

Yeosang was still frozen in shock that this random man that attacked his traveling party and chased him through the woods had… had known who he was. He could do nothing but watch as the two figures disappeared out of his sight without another look back from either of them. 

The clearing around him grew dark once more.

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━

After a long while of continuing to lay in the clearing, trying to understand what had just happened, Yeosang finally stood and began to make his way back in what was hopefully the direction of the fallen traveling party. The forest was just as dark as it was before, but without the urgency of survival rushing through him, Yeosang was moving slowly and tripping often. It felt like it took hours to reach the main road again where he found the traveling party still recuperating from the ambush. A guard standing off to the side seemingly monitoring everything going on looked over as Yeosang approached. 

“Stop there!” The man called, putting a hand out and stepping forward towards where Yeosang had stood abruptly still. “What is your business here?”

“I…” Yeosang had been working under the same house as this man for almost two years now. The lack of recognition stung, but did not entirely surprise him. “I am a servant under Lord Na’s house. I am returning from being chased into the woods by,” Images of the two beautiful men came to Yeosang’s mind and all he could remember was the moon and stars shining off of them as they left him behind, “the attackers.”

“Did they harm you?” The guard put his hand down and took a step closer to get a better look at Yeosang’s condition, but Yeosang shook his head causing the guard to cease his advancement.

“No, sir, they just meant to scare me, I think. I’m fine.” He stared at the guard and the older man looked back at him for a moment before nodding in acceptance.

“Very well. Then you might as well put yourself to good use and help the others in putting the luggage back into the carriage.” The guard gestured up the road where indeed there were a couple other servants reloading the carriages and Yeosang gave him a nod of gratitude before moving to go help.

When he settled the final bag back into the carriage, he took a step back and realized his hands were still shaking.

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━

The morning after they arrived back at the house was a long and tedious one. The Lord’s wife had given birth to a beautiful baby girl and the Lord had been ecstatic upon arrival before receiving news that his wife was not doing so well in the wake of their child’s birth. The Lord had been up all morning yelling at anyone he laid eyes on and screaming even more about the attack and how it kept him from his wife.

Yeosang did his best to steer clear of the torrential downpour of rage that was sure to afflict him if he crossed the line of sight of his master. He stayed downstairs in the servants’ chambers, helping others with whatever menial task they had to complete out of the way of everyone else that was bustling around upstairs. The day was long and somber as the condition of the lord’s wife only worsened.

By nightfall it wasn’t looking good and most of the house had begun to accept that the lord would likely be without a wife come dawn. The lord, however, was in complete denial, attempting to assure himself that his wife would make it. But everyone else knew better.

Yeosang went to bed with a heavy heart, unsure of what the next day would look like for him or his fellow servants of the house. It wasn’t set to be a good one, but he still hoped everything would go smoothly. He didn’t feel much sadness for the dying woman that had been in charge of him for nearly two years. He wondered if that was twisted of him, but he held no attachment to her. All he knew of her was the cruelty with which she had handled her interactions with those she felt were beneath her.

So instead of being unable to sleep due to any form of grief, Yeosang stayed awake contemplating what direction his moral compass had to be facing and in these silent moments in the night his thoughts were brought back to the night before. Throughout the day he had done his best to forget about the two men in the woods, busying himself as well as he could, but here in the peace and quiet with nothing to distract him his mind began to replay the events of the most insane night of his life thus far. 

The moonlit man with silvery almost lilac hair, Wooyoung, Yeosang couldn’t help but remember, had known who he was. He knew Yeosang’s name but Yeosang was sure that if he had met this man before he would have remembered it. And the starlit one, San, had not taken well to whatever form of recognition Wooyoung had expressed. Yeosang could feel his bones chill at the image of San’s features going from achingly warm to brutally cold within the blink of an eye. 

Most of all, though, Yeosang couldn’t help thinking about how beautiful the two men were. He had never laid eyes on such pleasing features on a man much less two men in the same instance. They were breathtaking. Neither one could have been from anywhere close by. Yeosang was sure that faces like those would be well talked about across cities far and wide.

And neither man had expressed any sort of fear over being caught. They had both been wild and reckless in their attack, as though it was all for fun. If Yeosang’s memory of Wooyoung’s wicked smile was serving him correctly, then they probably had been having a dangerous amount of fun.

As the thoughts of these two men plagued him, Yeosang began to close his eyes. Before he could, though, a shadow loomed across Yeosang’s vision. He opened his eyes wide once more to see that something was blocking the light of the moon streaming in through the small window Yeosang was blessed with in his quarters. 

And all at once the moonlight came back in full force to illuminate the figure standing above his bed.

Wooyoung.

The wicked smile was there on his face, gleaming in the unnatural silver light. Yeosang blinked, wondering if he had already fallen asleep and was dreaming, but Wooyoung was still there even after Yeosang had subtly pinched his thigh where it was hidden under the covers. 

“Hello, Yeosang.” Wooyoung moved, sitting on the edge of the bed rather than standing over it.

“Wh…” Yeosang was at a complete loss for words. How did the beautiful man get into his room? Why was he here? Yeosang wasn’t quite convinced that he wasn’t, in fact, dreaming. 

“I’m sorry if this scared you, but I had to come back.” Wooyoung’s smile softened from something wicked into something almost… reassuring. “You have a lot of questions, I’m sure, but I don’t have time to answer them yet. We need to go.” Yeosang blinked up at him in confusion, taking a moment to process what was being said to him.

“G- go?” He finally got out. “Go where?” Wooyoung stood back up and paced across the room to the window which Yeosang was only just realizing was open. Wooyoung must have come in through it somehow. 

“Home, obviously. Well, my home.” Without realizing it, Yeosang had pushed his covers off and was halfway to standing as though he was already convinced to go with this practical stranger to wherever he wanted. Yeosang didn’t understand the effect this man had on him, especially after he had been chased down by him the night before and almost killed. One would think Yeosang would be more scared that he had returned. 

“Why should I go wherever you like? I do not know you.” Yeosang gripped his blankets tighter as Wooyoung turned back to him, the wickedness back on his face. 

“No, young one, but I know you. You don’t understand yet, but coming with me would truly be best for you.” He slowly began to make his way back towards Yeosang, but Yeosang quickly stood and backed away to the other side of the room. 

“I’m not just going to believe you and come with you!” Yeosang insisted. His hands pressed against the wall behind him as though to steady himself and his resolve. For some inexplicable reason, his words were not holding true to his urges. He almost wanted to just… go. Go with Wooyoung, go to this home he spoke of. But he didn’t understand why and _that_ was what scared him. 

Wooyoung sighed and glanced away, as if thinking through something he was going to do next. “Look, I really don’t want to have to carry you there, so if you could just come with me, that would be great for both of us.” 

“What? Carry me?” Wooyoung made to move towards Yeosang again. Yeosang flinched away but found that there was nowhere else to go. 

“I’m not trying to… to scare you, Yeosang.” There was still an uneasiness at this man knowing his name when he had never spoken it aloud to him before. “I _need_ you to come with me. We don’t have much more time before San will be here, and believe me, neither of us want that with the mood he has been in all day. Please just come with me. I promise nothing bad will happen to you. I won’t let it.” 

Yeosang wanted to believe him. He still couldn’t understand why but he wanted to believe that this man was trustworthy. He almost moved away from the wall, but out of the corner of his eye he saw one of his thicker sets of boots on the floor beside him. Maybe if he could distract him or somehow manage to knock Wooyoung out, Yeosang could escape out the door and into the house. He didn’t want to hurt Wooyoung, but he didn’t want to go with him yet either. 

Before he could think it all the way through, Yeosang crouched down and grasped one of his boots in his hand. As fast as he could, he came back up to swing the boot at Wooyoung.

Quite anticlimactically, Wooyoung caught his arm easily. Sighing, he brought his right hand up to Yeosang’s head. “Gods, I truly hope you’re not heavy.”

Before he could protest or attempt to escape, Wooyoung touched his fingers to Yeosang’s forehead and Yeosang’s world went dark.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! I hope you enjoyed it and even if you didn’t, please give me some form of comment on what you thought!! 
> 
> Feel free to follow me on twt @hyuniebee where I will be posting any and all updates on this work!! And please look forward to the next chapter.


End file.
